


New People

by Tesseractingrey



Series: Forgiveness [4]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Mid 7x13
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:34:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26115013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tesseractingrey/pseuds/Tesseractingrey
Summary: Fitz and Daisy reflect on the past, and who they've become. (Mid 7x13)Conclusion: Part 2 to my "Forgiveness" series, because apparently I'm not ready to be done writing about their friendship (but again it still makes sense on its own too)
Relationships: Leo Fitz & Skye | Daisy Johnson
Series: Forgiveness [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1864072
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	New People

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't going to add a forth part to this series, but then I saw a post about how the show never resolved Fitz and Daisy's issues and then I sat down and wrote this in about a half an hour. Honestly, I'm okay that the show didn't explicitly address it because it dealt with the underlying issues that led to their falling out (ie Daisy dealing with her emotions and Fitz taking better care of himself mentally and physically) and because we got that little moment of them joking around, which made me so happy. I think a conversation like this had to have happened, but I'm okay with it not happening on screen. Plus, I just really love getting to write about Fitz and Daisy's friendship.

As Daisy gazed out at the impressive view of an unknown planet before her, it was hard not to think back to the last time she was in space and the man who prompted that mission. She loved getting to check in with her friends and hear about their lives, but it always put her in a bit of a reflective mood. The subject of her reflections today, though, was her relationship with the aforementioned man. It’d been months since they had resolved things, but she still wasn’t used to the way she and Fitz could smile and joke together again like they used to when they first met. It felt really nice, of course, but she still wasn’t over the novelty of it. The words Jemma had once spoken in a conversation that this version Fitz had slept through and Daisy had echoed in a conversation with him a year ago flitted through her mind, as relevant as ever. _We were different people back then._ They were different people now than they had been, but the things that mattered were still the same: FitzSimmons’ love of science, Mack’s love of cars, May’s love of mentoring, Coulson’s love of Lola, her own love of adventure, but most importantly, their love of each other.

———————  
1 year ago  
———————

Their final mission together had only cemented Daisy’s love of her family, so after it was all over, she impulsively decided to finally talk to Fitz about what happened between her and the other version of himself. Between the insanity of Izel and the Chronicoms, she hadn’t even had a chance to ask herself if this was even a conversation she wanted to have, but it was. She wasn’t really sure if she wanted another apology from him or to tell him he was forgiven, but she knew this was a conversation that needed to happen. Her family meant too much to her to let any hurt between them linger any longer. After he and Jemma finished putting Alya to bed the night following the final battle, it seemed as good a time as any to finally clear up any awkwardness between them. Jemma stayed in her room, not willing to let her daughter out of her sight anytime soon, but Fitz came out to get a snack. He might be a parent now, but some things, like an insatiable late night appetite, never change.

“Hey.” Fitz jumped a little bit at her greeting and her serious tone, fidgeting with the lid from the container of pretzels he’d just opened. Daisy might not have been part of the FitzSimmons psychic link, but she could tell that he knew what she’d come here to talk to him about, and he wasted no time jumping into it. Granted, it wasn’t like there was really anything else she would be having a deep late night conversation with him about, but she liked to think that maybe her friends knew her well enough by now to read her mind at least a little bit.

“When we were working on the time machine, uh, Jemma and I got into a fight about how long I was spending studying the time stream and how little time I was spending asleep, and...and she told me about what the other version of me did to you to get me to understand how I needed to take better care of myself.” He put the pretzel lid down, squeezing his hands into fists at his side, and looked at her earnestly. “I don’t know how to make this better, but I don’t want you to still be hurting from any version of me. I’m sure Jemma told you how much she missed you when we were off in space for those couple of years, but I-I really missed you too.”

Daisy let out a slow breath, looking down at the floor to escape the weight of his gaze. This conversation suddenly felt like _too much_ , like she needed to make an excuse and leave now and either write up note cards to feel some semblance of preparedness, or just avoid him for a few months until he gave up on trying to have the conversation. She’d thought she was ready for this, but the complex mess of emotions from over a year ago was hitting her again, and she had no idea how to sort through them. Clearing her throat awkwardly, she decided to keep it simple.

“I know we were only apart for a couple weeks for me, but I missed you too.” Since she was still looking determinedly down at the floor, Daisy missed the small smile her response evoked from Fitz. That seemed to give him the strength to keep talking, his words running together a bit now as he attempted to get out the statement as quickly as possible.

“Jemma told me that you forgave me and I don’t know if I deserve that because I hurt you and even though it was a different version of myself and I hate that it had to happen like that I still don’t think that me was wrong.” At this, Daisy’s gaze snapped back up to Fitz’s face again to see nerves and guilt reflected in his blue eyes, his knuckles whitening from the force of his grip at his sides. And suddenly, the ball of emotions untangled itself. She no longer felt any desire to quake him into a wall; she just wanted to give him a hug.

So she did. If there was anything Daisy had learned in the past 6 years since she’d first moved onto The Bus, it was to appreciate the people around her while she still could. She’d lost too many people she cared about in those years to not take the opportunity to hug those she still had whenever she wanted to. Fitz was stiff with surprise at first, but she only squeezed him tighter as if to physically convey how much she still loved him, despite everything. Eventually, his arms came up to wrap around her with equal strength. He was shaking slightly, the back of her shirt becoming slightly wet as his tears fell onto it. She might have teased him about messing up her shirt if she wasn’t crying much harder on his. Daisy didn’t know how long they stood there, holding each other and silently crying, but every second was worth it.

When they finally let go, it was because Daisy needed to blow her nose, and there was no need to ruin a nice moment by getting that on his shirt. She knew how squeamish he got, after all. She was struck by the sudden thought of how he must’ve reacted to his wife giving birth. The image of Fitz leaving Enoch to deliver the baby on his own because he was too grossed out gave her the mildly irrational urge to giggle. That was definitely not what she needed to talk to him about right now, though. Plus, as much as she loved to tease him, Daisy knew that he loved Jemma and Alya so much that he might be willing to rein in his nausea. But although Fitz might love Daisy too, he was probably a lot less willing to brave her snot than his daughter’s. That taken care of, and her tissue disposed of, she turned back to him to continue their conversation.

“Fitz, we were different people back then.” Daisy felt a little guilty for stealing Jemma’s words, but it wasn’t like Fitz would notice, since he wasn’t there, and they were quite fitting for this situation too. “I was far more emotional, and you were less mentally stable. It sucks that it had to happen like that, but I honestly don’t think that those versions of us could’ve done it any better. I was too scared to see the logic, and you were pushing yourself too hard to find a solution to be in the right mental state to implement it more calmly.”

Fitz nodded, but he still seemed agitated, fidgeting with the cuff of his sleeve.

“I just don’t want you to think that I don’t care that I hurt you, even if you are over it now. I don’t know how clear the other version of me made that when he was defending his decision. I can apologize for that, but I can’t apologize for making that decision at all beca—”

“I’m not asking you to apologize for that, Fitz. I really do understand how it was necessary, logically. This version of me is a very different person, and she’s gotten a lot better at dealing with her emotions and processing them, instead of repressing them and letting them totally derail her logical decisions. Now, they just derail them mildly.”

“I hope I can get to know this version of you better,” he said, smiling back shyly. “I haven’t spent much time with her yet, but she hasn’t quaked me into any walls, which is nice.” Daisy smiled back at him, shaking her head slightly in bemusement. This version of Fitz was pretty different too, but she thought she was going to like him a lot. He seemed a lot more secure in himself, even able to make jokes about when she was really mad at him without worrying about if she’d think he didn’t understand that he’d hurt her. Part of that was probably due to the conversation they’d just had, but part of it was probably also due to Jemma forcibly teaching him to take better care of himself and to understand his value. And given how Fitz was now pulling some carrot sticks out of the fridge to go with his plate of pretzels and truly massive pile of Oreos that he’d assembled while Daisy was blowing her nose, Jemma definitely appeared to have gotten through to him.

Daisy felt lighter now, the weight of her pain associated with Fitz finally dissipating for good. Sometimes, things needed to be said explicitly to resolve an issue, even if both people had already dealt with the emotions. But sometimes, you also needed to hug your friends for several minutes straight and cry the tears you didn’t know you were still holding onto. They were different people now, but not everything had to change. As Fitz inhaled Oreos with a determination and speed that could only be described as inhuman, Daisy couldn’t help but ask the question that she’d thought of earlier, slipping into her old pattern of teasing him.

“Hey Fitz, were you able to handle all the bodily fluids when your daughter was born?” His face turned a gratifying shade of red, and he almost choked on the cookie he was chewing in his haste to swallow it.

“What?!”

———————  
Now  
———————

And now, Daisy was looking out at outer space while Fitz played with his daughter. Her phone buzzed with a message, and she glanced down at it to see a short video taken by Jemma, featuring Fitz running around with Alya and the two of them being generally adorable. A second message added a caption from him about another hard day of work. They’d come a long way from movie nights on The Bus, all crammed into Jemma’s bunk together, Daisy throwing popcorn at the two of them while they criticized the logical inconsistencies of the rom com she was trying to get them to watch. They were different people now, but she was happy with who they’d become. After all, they still got to joke around and they still loved each other, and that’s what mattered most.

**Author's Note:**

> In case anyone was wondering about the line "her own love of adventure," I wrote that because I think a significant part of her motivation throughout the series has been curiosity: wanting to see and expose what SHIELD was doing, wanting to find her parents, wanting to understand her powers, etc. Her desire for a family is obviously also a hugely important part of her character, but she also has this interesting desire to discover things just in general that I don't think we talk about enough. Although she is actually on a space adventure now, I don't know if "love of adventure" is exactly the right way to phrase it, but I couldn't think of a better word to describe this consistent drive she has to figure new things out.


End file.
